Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Can you beat the clock?
Deadline for the Doctoral College 3MT application has been extended to Monday 5 February 2018.
For more information, eligibility and how to apply visit the website.
Don’t miss out on the chance to win £400 towards a conference of your choice, plus entry into the Vitae National 3MT competition plus £100 voucher.
Ms. Sheetal Sharma who will be graduating from Bournemouth University with a Ph.D. on November 10th has been awarded Bournemouth University’s The Postgraduate Research Prize. This prize is for the postgraduate student whose achievement is deemed by the Vice-Chancellor to have been most outstanding in their time at BU.
Sheetal stood out as a Ph.D. student as her maternal health research project in Nepal resulted in several many publications [1-6], some in very prestigious journals such as BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth [4] and PLOSOne [5] . She won the best poster prize at the international GLOW conference in Birmingham in 2013 with the poster presentation ‘Getting women to care in Nepal: A Difference in Difference analysis of a health promotion intervention’. She won a SBSP travel scholarship to present a poster at the 8th European Congress on Tropical Medicine & International Health in 2013 in Denmark. Sheetal’s abstract of the poster was also officially published [7].
Sheetal presented at the Science in Society conference (SiS) at Berkeley University in November 2012 where she received a Graduate Scholar Award. In addition, she won a Santander travel scholarships for £5,000 to learn about research at the University of Buenos Aires, Institute for Clinical Effectiveness & Health Policy (Argentina) and at the University of Barcelona in Spain. This scholarship resulted in a great publication with the world-famous researcher in reproductive health care prof. Jose Belizan as co-author. Sheetal also presented her work at the first ever national health promotion conference in Nepal.
Sheetal also had less academic achievements as she won the BU photo competition at the 2014 PGR conference with the photo in this blog. 
Sheetal was also actively involved as a student representative in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences as well as in the Graduate School. She even found time to join the editorial board of the newly formed Journal of Asian Midwives.
Over the past five years Sheetal has had many mentions on this BU research blog as one of BU’s most prolific publishing PhD students.
As supervisors and co-authors we are proud of her!
Dr. Catherine Angell, Prof. Vanora Hundley & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (CMMPH)
BU Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada, Liverpool John Moores University
Dr. Elisa Sicuri, Assistant Research Professor at ISGlobal, Spain
Prof. Jose Belizan, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
References to published work by Sheetal Sharma:
Congratulations to BU’s Equality and Diversity Adviser James Palfreman-Kay whose application to HEFCE’s ‘Catalyst Fund: Tackling hate crime and online harassment on campus‘ has been successful. He is one of 40 academic recipients of funding at universities and colleges throughout England. Applications have been assessed by a panel of HEFCE staff and external experts from across relevant areas of knowledge particular to student safeguarding.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
The next BU Research Staff Association coffee morning will take place on 25th October, 10-11 am in S107, Studland House, Lansdowne Campus. The focus is an Introduction to Project Management. These coffee morning are open to all staff at BU, and we particularly welcome those on research specific contracts including PGRs.
We are delighted to welcome guest speaker Dr Roger Atkinson, Senior Lecturer in Project Management to share his knowledge and experience in this area.
We look forward to seeing you there.
BU Research Staff Association
Dr Michelle Heward and Dr Michele Board from the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) attended the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE) Fourteenth Annual Symposium ‘Healthcare Simulation: playing seriously’ on Wednesday 18th October 2017. During the day several presentations highlighted current research on simulation in healthcare education and its application in health and social care settings – from the use of virtual reality training for surgeons to the ‘simulance’ ambulance simulator by paramedics.
Dr Heward gave a presentation ‘using simulation in dementia education’ highlighting the ADRC’s current projects with Health Education England and Alzheimer’s Research UK. Both projects involve the evaluation of simulated learning in dementia education.
Health Education England (HEE) has commissioned the ADRC to deliver a new ‘Train the Trainers’ enhanced education programme called ‘Dementia Education and Learning Through Simulation’ 2 (DEALTS 2). This builds on previous work undertaken in 2013/14 by HEE to ensure healthcare professionals understand and can deliver key competencies according to the Dementia Core Skills Education and Training Framework at TIER 2 (Skills for Health and Health Education England, 2015). The ADRC have now delivered 13 train the trainers sessions nationally across England and are currently evaluating the adoption, adaption, and impact of the programme on practice until June 2018.
The ADRC also had a stand at the event providing attendees with information about their current research themes: ageing and dementia-friendly environments; nutrition and wellbeing; and activity and social inclusion. For more information about the ADRC please email adrc@bournemouth.ac.uk
Dr Michelle Heward from the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) attended the ‘VOICEs in dementia care: the science and practice of communication’ conference hosted by the Institute of Mental Health, at the University of Nottingham on Tuesday 17th October 2017. This free event was open to anyone interested in understanding communication with people with dementia and attracted over 100 healthcare professionals working with people with dementia, family carers and academics.
During the day there were several presentations highlighting current research on communication and dementia, and its application in health and social care settings. This included the VideOing to Improve Communication Education (VOICE), an NIHR funded study led by Professor Harwood, to improve communication between healthcare professionals and people with dementia in acute hospitals. VOICE offers a different method for training simulated patients, grounded in patients’ real interactional practices as observed from video data. Attendees got to see a demonstration of an interaction between a healthcare professional and a simulated patient (trained using the VOICE approach), and hear about the new toolkit designed to improve the use of simulated patients in training healthcare professionals.
Other presentations focused on: how people with dementia are involved in decision making; optimising hearing-related communication; power of attorney in dementia care communication; and shared reading with people with dementia. This conference certainly provided food for thought given the ADRC’s interest in simulated learning.
Many thanks to all those who attended the Health and Social Sciences PGR Impact Workshop on 5th October. This was a great opportunity for those at various points on the PhD journey to consider how their research might be impactful.
Those who attended commented that the workshop was a timely reminder of the importance of integrating impact into a doctoral project as well as understanding the importance of public engagement as knowledge exchange.
Thanks to Dr James Gavin and Jane Forster for their input to the session on the importance of public and patient involvement in research and seeking impact in the context of policy.
For those in HSS please feel free to contact Clare Killingback, Impact Champion for more information on Research Impact.
The ADRC is working with Alzheimer’s Research UK to evaluate another form of simulated learning and evaluate the effectiveness of their newly created Virtual Reality app ‘A Walk Through Dementia’ (AWTD) which offers a unique glimpse into life for a person living with dementia. The Android and IOS Phone app was developed by Alzheimer’s Research UK and virtual reality specialists VISYON, and uses the widely-available Google Cardboard headset. It is designed to help the public think beyond memory loss to gain a fully immersive insight into the varied symptoms people with dementia can experience in everyday life.
A Walk Through Dementia is the first time a smartphone Cardboard app has been used to engage the public with the condition. The experience, which can also be viewed headset-free on the app or online at www.awalkthroughdementia.org, uses a combination of computer generated environments and 360 degree video sequences to illustrate in powerful detail how even the most everyday task of making a cup of tea can become a challenge for someone with dementia. To date Alzheimer’s Research UK have received some preliminary feedback on using AWTD from the public, health care professionals and care sector.
On 11th October over 280 year 1 undergraduate adult and mental health nursing students attended a Dementia themed study day, led by Dr Michele Board, and during the day they gained insight into the lived experience of dementia using the AWTD Virtual Reality App. With support from Professor Jane Murphy, Laura Phipps from Alzheimer’s Research and Professor Liz Falconer, the students were instructed to use the app and discuss questions about the film and how it might influence their practice. The prospect of this session was a little nerve wracking, but the result amazing. The students really engaged and said how valuable the app was and giving them an insight into dementia.
Last week, Prof Ann Hemingway, Prof Adele Ladkin and Dr Holly Crossen-White joined European research colleagues in Ostend, Belgium for a SAIL Project bi-annual team meeting. Over two days all research partners from four different European countries had the opportunity to share their initial research data from pilot projects being developed within each country for older people. The BU team will be undertaking the feasibility study for the SAIL project and will be drawing together all the learning from the various interventions created by the other partners.
Congratulations to Dr. Sue Way and Prof. Vanora Hundley in BU’s Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) on their latest publication on the latent phase of labour. Their paper ‘Defining the latent phase of labour: is it important?’ appeared in Evidence Based Midwifery and was written with midwifery colleagues across the UK, Germany and Canada [1].
Congratulations
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Reference:
Friday 6th October St Mary’s Maternity Unit, part of Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, held a Whose Shoes? event in Poole. Whose Shoes?® is a facilitation tool to help empower both staff and service users of services. Friday’s event was led by Gill Phillips, the person behind the original idea of Whose Shoes?®. Gill’s approach involves promoting understanding and empathy by looking at issues from a wide range of perspectives from a range of possible stakeholders.
The event Poole was initiated by NHS midwife Jillian Ireland, who is also BU Visiting Faculty in our Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH). She was assisted by Dr. Jen Leamon, who helped facilitate NHS maternity staff, pregnant women and new mothers, in their discussions. Jen is Senior Lecturer in Midwifery at BU and she facilitated the discussion with the aid of the Whose Shoes? board game. In the afternoon Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (also based in CMMPH) led a discussion of reflection and reflective practice with midwives and maternity support workers (MSWs). CMMPH’s involvement in the event is part of our wider collaboration with the NHS locally in the field of midwifery education.
The Whose Shoes? board game is also by CMMPH in a very different context as PhD student Alice Ladur has translated the game to test it in Uganda. Alice first did a pilot study with African men living in London before embarking on a project to improve men’s involvement in maternity care in rural Uganda.
Dr. Pramod Regmi, Lecturer in International Health in the Faculty of Health & Social Care, wrote in today’s edition of my Republica under the title ‘Health for all’. This article in one of Nepal’s national daily newspapers my Republica, is co-authored with Mr. Bhagirath Yogy, a BBC journalist based in London. 
The idea of universal health insurance is high on the international agenda as it is regarded as a potential solution to offering universal health care, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Too many people across the globe have no or poor access to health care when they need it and national or local health insurance can help some populations in improving their access to health workers and health facilities.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Dr. Miguel Moital, Principal Academic in Events Management, Faculty of Management, recently traveled to Portugal and Spain to present his work.
In Portugal, Miguel talked to students from the Masters in Tourism Management at the UCP – Portuguese Catholic University (Braga Campus). BU has an Erasmus agreement with UCP for staff exchange. Miguel talked about key issues in academic writing, presenting material from his e-book on the topic.
In Spain, Miguel delivered a presentation about ‘Managing Prestige in Spa & Thermal Experiences” to 35 participants of a pre-TERMATALIA course, attended by industry and institutional participants from countries such as Argentina, Costa Rica, and Colombia.
The course received coverage in the regional media, including a report by TV Channel Telemino (see after 2 minutes) and newspaper La Region.
The presentation was based on his research around the consumption of prestigious experiences, part of it co-created with Undergraduate Students through their dissertations.
TERMATALIA – 17th International Exhibition of Thermal Tourism, Health and Wellness is “the only specialized fair in the world that represents a thermal bridge between Europe and Latin America, bringing together professionals from more than 25 countries”. TERMATALIA alternates between Ourense (Galicia), where it originates, and a Latin -American country (next year it will take place in Iguaçu, Brazil).
Ourense features many thermal baths which feed off from the natural hot springs, with a number of both public pools (free to use) and private pools (fee paying, tough €6 will pay for 2 hours on the best one) scattered along and around the Miño river.
Outariz Thermal Baths, Ourense
Association for Psychosocial Studies Biennial Conference
Bournemouth University, 5th-7th April 2018
‘Psychosocial Reflections on a Half Century of Cultural Revolution:
The 50th anniversary of seasons of love and protest’
Now with new Open Stream on “ New Directions in Psychosocial Studies”
Join us to reflect on revolutionary relationships and politics which challenged authority then and which influence us now. The cultural forces and the political movements of 1967 and 1968 aimed to change the world, and did so. Where are we now? Recent developments of some populist and protest politics could be seen as a continuation of the revolutionary movements in the 1960s. Hedonic themes that recall the summer of love suffuse contemporary life, and self-reflection and emotional literacy have also become prominent values, along with more positive attitudes towards human diversity and the international community. We invite you to offer psychosocial analyses of the development and legacy today of the ‘revolutions’ in sex, personal life and politics. This could be via explorations of contemporary issues in politics, culture and artistic expression, or through historical studies. All proposals for papers must indicate how they address both psychological and social dimensions of their topic.
Due to popular demand, we have added a new open stream, for those who wish to submit proposals for papers, panels or visual art presentations on
“Current and New Directions in Psychosocial Studies”
Further details: http://aps2018.bournemouth.ac.uk/call-for-papers/
Send your abstract of 250-300 words to APS2018@bournemouth.ac.uk
Final deadline: 1st December 2017. Confirmation of acceptance: 1st Jan
(existing submissions, notified by 1st. November).
We welcome contributions from academics and practitioners from different fields and disciplines and very much look forward to seeing you there!
BU Research Staff Association (RSA) meets informally at a regular coffee morning which is open to all staff and PhD Students at BU. Each coffee morning has a research related theme and speakers are invited from across BU to share their experiences around this theme.
The next three coffee mornings will focus on:
| Date | Time | Venue | Theme | Speakers |
| 25 October 2017 | 10-11am | S107, Studland House, Lansdowne Campus | Introduction to Project Management | Dr Roger Atkinson, Senior Lecturer in Project Management |
| 29 November 2017 | 10-11am | F105, Fusion Building, Talbot Campus | Career pathways for researchers within and outside of academia | Penny Ballyntyne, Careers Adviser, BU Careers Service |
| 31 January 2018 | 10-11am | S107, Studland House, Lansdowne Campus | Developing your research ideas and where to look for funding | Lisa Gale-Andrews and Emily Cieciura, Research Facilitators, Research and Knowledge Exchange Office |
To ensure we have enough cake please email mheward@bournemouth.ac.uk to confirm attendance.
Further coffee mornings will also take place on 28 March,30 May, and 25 July 2018 – themes and speakers to be confirmed!!!!!
See you there!
BU Research Staff Association
Not to be missed!
Last year was the first year of a new Level 6 unit on the Physiotherapy programme called “Innovation in Physiotherapy”, and as unit lead I was keen to encourage the students to appraise smartphone apps in healthcare. Much of my research to date has been looking at “eHealth” (electronic health) and I was keen for them to have more awareness of these growing forms of healthcare adjuncts.
The students worked in groups to select their apps and then present their app reviews to the class, and following this they were encouraged to write up their app reviews and submit them for publication. I am happy to say that along with Adam Arthur, Alastair Bolton, Alex Evens and Philip Slemon, we have had our app review (“World Rugby Concussion’ by World Rugby Limited: a smartphone application for the general public”) published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine (Impact factor 6.724). This is my first co-creation paper with students since arriving at BU, and hopefully this process can be replicated in future years in the unit.
The article can be found at:
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2017/09/27/bjsports-2017-098185.full
BU staff can login below:
Conversation article: London Marathon – how visually impaired people run
Research Information Network
Horizon Europe News – December 2023